tuque /tūk/ n Canadian English, var. toque[19th c. Canadian French, from the French toque, from the Basque tauka] 1 A close-fitting knitted cap, often with a long tapering end or tassel or pompom. 2 fig Something quintessentially Canadian.

souq/sūk/ n from the Arabic سوقvar. souk 1 An open-air marketplace. 2fig A central meeting place for the circulation of news and ideas.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Canadian Law found Guilty in Terrorism Trial

The teenage nameless, faceless, allegedly mens rea jihadist was just found guilty on charges of terrorism by an Ontario Superior Court in Brampton.

At the same time, the co-defendant in the six-month court case - Canadian Law - was found guilty by association of Guilt by Association.

[Ding-ding: Tuque Souq sarcasm alert.]

"The law is on trial as well," explained U of T professor Wesley Wark to The Globe and Mail. "Is the law a functional law? Does mens rea [guilty mind] really apply? How much knowledge do you really have to have? This will test the dimensions of how terrorism activities are defined."

Well, the test results are in: The law can find this apparent juvenile delinquent - who is as much a Muslim convert as other teenagers are hipster-doofus converts - guilty of thinking himself an extremist after what was probably an all-too-easy brainwashing by the actual, still-untried, real extremists.

(And if, after a brainwashing, I think I'm a tomato sandwich - well then I am a tomato sandwich. Probably a soggy one.)

The case is now the standard-bearer, the precedent-setter, for Canada's anti-terrorism laws - seeing as how this case was the first of its kind in Canadian history.

Now, had prosecutors sought a lesser charge - perhaps that of mens situs [idle mind] - well, we could all get behind that. Or even mens Wii-us [video-game comatose mind]: then the law could have a precedent that could help society.

Perhaps simply mens-I'm-a-teenager-in-a-culturally-disoriented-post-suburban-morass-of-a-society. Alas, maybe that will come up during the appeal process.

Until then, the Tuque Souq warns: A guilty mind is the devil's pawnshop.